Rose cherry brandy 2009, 2017

Poltrona in stile, velluti in seta Pontoglio, passamanerie in seta

Style armchair, Pontoglio silk velvets, silk passementerie

170×140 cm

Seduta / Seat 70×40 cm

Opyum, 2017

Agrippina in stile veneto fine ‘800, velluti in seta Pontoglio e tessuti Etro

Late 19th Century Venetian style agrippina, Pontoglio silk velvets, Etro fabrics

154×110 cm

Seduta / Seat 33×49 cm

Diametro rosa / Rose diameter 120 cm

Tearose Pouf, 2013

Struttura in legno design Tolomeo, seduta scultura in velluto di seta

wooden structure by Tolomeo design, seat-sculpture in silk velvet

H 60 cm x diametro Ø 120 cm

Seduta / Seat 60 cm x diametro Ø 105 cm

Progetto per un capoletto, 2012

Gouache e matita,

campioni di tessuti per scelta colori

Gouache and pencil,

frabrics swatches for color selection

36×51 cm

Courtesy Galleria Contini, Stefano Contini

Carla Tolomeo is an eclectic artist with many interests: she writes, she

is constantly documenting the life of Giacomo Casanova, she has been

operating for about thirty years in the art world. Although she proved

to be a praiseworthy artist with her exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan

in 1992, her real success in Italy and internationally came as a result

of her extraordinary Sculpture-Chairs. Initially businesses like Hermès,

Neiman Marcus, Missoni, Blumarine, followed by exhibitions in affirmed

national and international galleries popularised her work and have shone

the spotlight on her bold sculptures in silk velvets and sequins, with their

baroque and seductive forms. The chair of Carla Tolomeo is now a matter

of culture and habit together. Her works are shown at international

auctions and are part of Contemporary Art Museum collection. Her

works are in demand by gallerists from all over the world. The Chairs

can be admired at FIAC in Paris, at Miami Art Basel, at ARCO in Madrid,

at Arte Fiera in Bologna, as well as at MIART; they are sought after for

important exhibitions, not least of which the Museum of Modern Art in

Milan, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Sheremetey Museum in

St. Petersburg.

From sculpting in marble to the rediscovery of painting, from ceramics

to her extraordinary drawings and once again her Chairs, there is always

something new and elegant, that defies every law of gravity. In the

summer of 2017, she accepted the task of working as a scenographer,

designing the backdrops for the great Turandot.

The number 21 – day of his birth – the magic number of the legendary

Professor Giancarlo Vigorelli, art critic/writer-literary/ journalist/General

Secretary of the European Community of Writers.

A long-standing friendship binds them.

Husband, rival companion in cultural affairs of Carla Tolomeo, Giancarlo

was the former President of the National Center of Manzonian Studies;

Carla is a learned scholar and expert on the life of Giacomo Casanova.

21 was the number that had always made him a winner: all Great Men

have a special number which connects them to important events, fortune,

financial gains.

Casanova knew that the 21st day – his own number – would signalize

a destiny of adventures and misadventures made of escapes, duels and

passionate love affairs.

The sentimental and spiritual life of Carla Tolomeo has been influenced

by these two great and incumbent Presences, who without a doubt have

both had an impact on her, but never impeded her search for the absolute

and for freedom. She has never won a lottery, nor played lotto; to her,

numbers are all the same… complete indifference.

Like Carla, I was born in February and surprisingly Carla was born on the

exact same day, perhaps even the same hour but fortunately for her, not

the same year.

For both of us, every single day is extraordinary, meant to be lived with

enthusiasm and passion. I have no idea where this absolute faith comes

from and I never asked Carla, being certain of the fact that our survival

and future security depended exclusively on us.

I have always followed her continuous study of Art, fully aware of the

difficulties she would face to affirm herself as a woman-artist, just as it

had been in the past for many others like her.

In 1993, her impressive exhibition of 50 works at Palazzo Reale in Milan

was not only a retrospective, but an extensive artistic itinerary, a prolonged

declaration between immense canvases that represented empty rooms,

shadows, lights in dark corridors, imaginary presences, homages to Dürer

and Mantegna; works that transmitted violent memoirs.

Carla was attractive, young, a small soft figure, bursting with energy; she

seemed to feed on air, on light, art and dreams.

Her style of painting is current still today; it’s neither extinct nor spent,

but a volcano waiting to amaze us, to unsettle gallery dealers, critics and

collectors.

In 1997, after the exhibition at the Leicester’s Galleries in London, she

ceased to paint, after having climbed up and reached a difficult summit.

In a crucial moment, she chose to dedicate herself full time to deal with

severe health issues within her family.

She suspended her artistic studies, but in her small private world,

discovered a new form of expression.

And it is here that the story of Marta and Carla and my beloved friendship

begins; I cannot forget the surprising effect of her Chair/Sculptures,

which I admired at her home during a birthday party…they left me feeling

emotional. They were surreal, fun and disturbing, full of fantasy; she

had begun to create them as a pastime to distract her mother who was

gravely ill. But what enthused me the most was the absolute novelty of

this artistic expression.

I recall, and quite proudly so, to have been her first client/benefactor, to

have had complete confidence in the merit of this versatile and highspirited

artist. After admiring the chairs in my own home, prestigious home

furnishing magazines world-wide began to incessantly write about them.

The chair/sculptures, the armchairs, today grace distinguished private

residences, from New York to Honolulu, from London to St. Petersburg,

and have since also caught the interest of international fashion maisons.

(Blumarine, Hermès in Paris, Neiman Marcus in New York).

Missoni repeatedly donated fabrics to Carla; in Pontoglio velvets were

created for her, and incredulous, humbly she confided to me, “It’s a

passing phenomenon that will soon end. But I will invent something new”.

But success, the novelty of the comfortable Sculptures, did not end;

it spread to galleries and international fairs, museums and private

collections all over the world.

Carla Tolomeo in the meantime, took on the task of working with marble,

creating incredible totem-like sculptures. She rediscovered ceramic

art and worked in the legendary workshop, San Giorgio di Albisola –

frequented in the past by Lam and Fontana – and from which absolute

masterpieces have emerged.

Her chairs however, remain a rare phenomenon of fantasy and invention

in a world that seems to have lost the meaning of beauty, culture, space

and time.

The “tolemical” Tolomeo will never cease to amaze me. Her style defies

statics and every canon of aesthetics; they are unique pieces, magnificent

objects of desire similar to a deep child-like dream.

This collection of works being exhibited in a solo show in Sabbioneta, pay

tribute not only to the ability of a great artist, but also to her inexhaustible

and invigorating creativity and joy of Art itself.

Marta Marzotto

Milan, October 21st

Rose cherry brandy 2009, 2017

Poltrona in stile, velluti in seta Pontoglio, passamanerie in seta

Style armchair, Pontoglio silk velvets, silk passementerie

170×140 cm

Seduta / Seat 70×40 cm

Opyum, 2017

Agrippina in stile veneto fine ‘800, velluti in seta Pontoglio e tessuti Etro

Late 19th Century Venetian style agrippina, Pontoglio silk velvets, Etro fabrics

154×110 cm

Seduta / Seat 33×49 cm

Diametro rosa / Rose diameter 120 cm

Tearose Pouf, 2013

Struttura in legno design Tolomeo, seduta scultura in velluto di seta

wooden structure by Tolomeo design, seat-sculpture in silk velvet

H 60 cm x diametro Ø 120 cm

Seduta / Seat 60 cm x diametro Ø 105 cm

Progetto per un capoletto, 2012

Gouache e matita,

campioni di tessuti per scelta colori

Gouache and pencil,

frabrics swatches for color selection

36×51 cm

Courtesy Galleria Contini, Stefano Contini

Carla Tolomeo is an eclectic artist with many interests: she writes, she

is constantly documenting the life of Giacomo Casanova, she has been

operating for about thirty years in the art world. Although she proved

to be a praiseworthy artist with her exhibition at Palazzo Reale in Milan

in 1992, her real success in Italy and internationally came as a result

of her extraordinary Sculpture-Chairs. Initially businesses like Hermès,

Neiman Marcus, Missoni, Blumarine, followed by exhibitions in affirmed

national and international galleries popularised her work and have shone

the spotlight on her bold sculptures in silk velvets and sequins, with their

baroque and seductive forms. The chair of Carla Tolomeo is now a matter

of culture and habit together. Her works are shown at international

auctions and are part of Contemporary Art Museum collection. Her

works are in demand by gallerists from all over the world. The Chairs

can be admired at FIAC in Paris, at Miami Art Basel, at ARCO in Madrid,

at Arte Fiera in Bologna, as well as at MIART; they are sought after for

important exhibitions, not least of which the Museum of Modern Art in

Milan, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Sheremetey Museum in

St. Petersburg.

From sculpting in marble to the rediscovery of painting, from ceramics

to her extraordinary drawings and once again her Chairs, there is always

something new and elegant, that defies every law of gravity. In the

summer of 2017, she accepted the task of working as a scenographer,

designing the backdrops for the great Turandot.

The number 21 – day of his birth – the magic number of the legendary

Professor Giancarlo Vigorelli, art critic/writer-literary/ journalist/General

Secretary of the European Community of Writers.

A long-standing friendship binds them.

Husband, rival companion in cultural affairs of Carla Tolomeo, Giancarlo

was the former President of the National Center of Manzonian Studies;

Carla is a learned scholar and expert on the life of Giacomo Casanova.

21 was the number that had always made him a winner: all Great Men

have a special number which connects them to important events, fortune,

financial gains.

Casanova knew that the 21st day – his own number – would signalize

a destiny of adventures and misadventures made of escapes, duels and

passionate love affairs.

The sentimental and spiritual life of Carla Tolomeo has been influenced

by these two great and incumbent Presences, who without a doubt have

both had an impact on her, but never impeded her search for the absolute

and for freedom. She has never won a lottery, nor played lotto; to her,

numbers are all the same… complete indifference.

Like Carla, I was born in February and surprisingly Carla was born on the

exact same day, perhaps even the same hour but fortunately for her, not

the same year.

For both of us, every single day is extraordinary, meant to be lived with

enthusiasm and passion. I have no idea where this absolute faith comes

from and I never asked Carla, being certain of the fact that our survival

and future security depended exclusively on us.

I have always followed her continuous study of Art, fully aware of the

difficulties she would face to affirm herself as a woman-artist, just as it

had been in the past for many others like her.

In 1993, her impressive exhibition of 50 works at Palazzo Reale in Milan

was not only a retrospective, but an extensive artistic itinerary, a prolonged

declaration between immense canvases that represented empty rooms,

shadows, lights in dark corridors, imaginary presences, homages to Dürer

and Mantegna; works that transmitted violent memoirs.

Carla was attractive, young, a small soft figure, bursting with energy; she

seemed to feed on air, on light, art and dreams.

Her style of painting is current still today; it’s neither extinct nor spent,

but a volcano waiting to amaze us, to unsettle gallery dealers, critics and

collectors.

In 1997, after the exhibition at the Leicester’s Galleries in London, she

ceased to paint, after having climbed up and reached a difficult summit.

In a crucial moment, she chose to dedicate herself full time to deal with

severe health issues within her family.

She suspended her artistic studies, but in her small private world,

discovered a new form of expression.

And it is here that the story of Marta and Carla and my beloved friendship

begins; I cannot forget the surprising effect of her Chair/Sculptures,

which I admired at her home during a birthday party…they left me feeling

emotional. They were surreal, fun and disturbing, full of fantasy; she

had begun to create them as a pastime to distract her mother who was

gravely ill. But what enthused me the most was the absolute novelty of

this artistic expression.

I recall, and quite proudly so, to have been her first client/benefactor, to

have had complete confidence in the merit of this versatile and highspirited

artist. After admiring the chairs in my own home, prestigious home

furnishing magazines world-wide began to incessantly write about them.

The chair/sculptures, the armchairs, today grace distinguished private

residences, from New York to Honolulu, from London to St. Petersburg,

and have since also caught the interest of international fashion maisons.

(Blumarine, Hermès in Paris, Neiman Marcus in New York).

Missoni repeatedly donated fabrics to Carla; in Pontoglio velvets were

created for her, and incredulous, humbly she confided to me, “It’s a

passing phenomenon that will soon end. But I will invent something new”.

But success, the novelty of the comfortable Sculptures, did not end;

it spread to galleries and international fairs, museums and private

collections all over the world.

Carla Tolomeo in the meantime, took on the task of working with marble,

creating incredible totem-like sculptures. She rediscovered ceramic

art and worked in the legendary workshop, San Giorgio di Albisola –

frequented in the past by Lam and Fontana – and from which absolute

masterpieces have emerged.

Her chairs however, remain a rare phenomenon of fantasy and invention

in a world that seems to have lost the meaning of beauty, culture, space

and time.

The “tolemical” Tolomeo will never cease to amaze me. Her style defies

statics and every canon of aesthetics; they are unique pieces, magnificent

objects of desire similar to a deep child-like dream.

This collection of works being exhibited in a solo show in Sabbioneta, pay

tribute not only to the ability of a great artist, but also to her inexhaustible

and invigorating creativity and joy of Art itself.

Marta Marzotto

Milan, October 21st